Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) have agreed to pay 15% of revenues from their Chinese artificial intelligence chip sales to the US government in exchange for export licenses, as per an FT report.
The arrangement covers Nvidia’s H20 AI accelerator and AMD’s MI308 chip.
The revenue-sharing deal is an unusual mechanism in modern corporate trade history.
It reflects US President Donald Trump’s broader strategy of extracting direct financial benefits for the US in return for trade concessions.
His administration has previously linked relaxed trade conditions to significant domestic investment commitments, such as Apple Inc’s pledge to spend $600 billion on US manufacturing.
Beijing pushback likely
Beijing is expected to oppose the move. Yuyuantantian, a social media account tied to state-run China Central Television that often signals the Chinese government’s trade stance, criticised the H20 chip on Sunday, citing alleged security vulnerabilities and inefficiency.
The H20 was designed specifically for the Chinese market following export restrictions imposed under the Biden administration in 2023.
Sales of the chip were effectively banned in April this year under the Trump administration.
Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang has spent months lobbying both US and Chinese officials to restart sales of the H20 in China.
The Commerce Department began issuing H20 licenses last week, shortly after Huang met with President Trump.
The deal comes as the US and China move toward de-escalating trade tensions.
Beijing has relaxed controls on rare earth exports, while Washington has lifted certain restrictions on chip design software companies operating in China.
In May, both nations agreed to a 90-day truce in their tariff dispute.
Since then, senior trade officials have held multiple meetings, though an extension of the pause has yet to be confirmed ahead of the August 12 deadline.
Corporate commitments under Trump’s tariff policy
As part of his tariff strategy, Trump has pressed major corporations to increase US investments.
Apple recently announced an additional $100 billion investment in the country, adding to its previous $500 billion pledge over four years.
Micron Technology said in June it would invest $200 billion in the US, including a new manufacturing facility in Idaho.
Nvidia has separately committed up to $500 billion to build AI servers in the US, including the first fully American-made AI supercomputers.
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